19 Comments

England seems very happy with their single payer, there's something saying we're all in this together, with no draft and crappy economy the working class fights our wars, and you can see how it screws up our foreign policy, the GOP are always trying to separate the wealthy from the rest of us in Medicaid and with school vouchers.

that sounds very workable, do they have good results, life expectancy/ live birth weight/ infant mortality? It's all good if you don't know off hand I'm a nurse so in general seems most people would be taken care of, paying for drugs can be expensive but I bet there are private plans for that and you do have some control over that, anyway you can use what you would have to give the doctor here to pay for them I guess.

Insurance costs keep going up, of course, and our lower income earners or social security recipients get a health care card, which means some drugs are free, and others are cheaper through rebates from the gov.

Waiting lists for elective surgery are very long, but emergency cases go striaght in, and the one time I needed surgery, I have no complaints about conditions in the hospital.

If you want to go to a private doctor, some of them "bulk bill" the govt directly, so you don't pay, and others charge you a nominal fee, which you can then claim back a the greater portion of, at a Medicare office. Everyone has a Medicare card, which also prevents addicts from doctor shopping, just to get meds.

The system is not without flaws. My sister actually works for a dept that investigates fraud, from both sides of the gate. Doctors who are detected cheating, get a payment plan slapped on them, and they keep working. Patients who try all sorts of cheats to get more money, end up getting caught, and a payment plan gets slapped on them.

Your comment sparked a thought I wonder if there are people here who fight single payer so they can doctor shop? We had a famous case of Rush Limbaugh doing that I suppose the wealthy can doctor shop under current system and their access to pills might be restricted under single payer, I had not thought of that angle, but it might be one thing working against us.

Here in AZ only those writing cannabis recommendations have to check drug records.

I remember the bad days of doctor shopping here. People were getting beat up badly and sent to doctors for morph-based pain killers, so the addicts could be stoned all day. Docs were writing up the scripts before you sat down to tell them what you wanted. In and out in less than three minutes. Doc gets paid per visit, so they were party to the fraud as well.

Any system can be found to have holes, as long as all the players are aligned with corrupt practises.

Public option says 'I am the way, the truth, and the life'. Single-payer universal (i.e., for everyone in the U.S. whether illegal immigrant or not because illnesses observe no legal barrier of residency permits) coverage is the only sensible health payment method for most people in the U.S. It does not mean that private insurance will disappear. There are enough fat cats in the U.S. who can afford that. 'To each according to their needs'.

Not that I want us to be a Christian nation or anything, but if we were we take care of our sick. Remember Jesus asking for a debt card? or worrying about if that cripple had earned new legs? seems to me that was the sort of things the Kings worried about.

I favor Medicare for all or a Canada type system
but that does not matter

the ONLY way that we can lower all health care costs and extract the
infection we call medical insurance is to
disconnect corporations from crapitalism

the ONLY way that we can disconnect corporations from crapitalism
is to VOTE for electable pro-99% candidates

If, in 2011-2012 every OWSer got four people to vote that way and they got four and they got four ....................
We would have 25 more pro-99% representatives & 5 more pro-99% senators
Now imagine what would happen with jobs, social programs, wars, privatization

The constant blame game is how things work in the divisive two party scheme. Keeps the focus off of their own.

Like with Obamacare, if the right did it, the left would wake the hell up and realize its forced corporatism at its finest, with one of the most destructive lobby pairs in the DC (insurance and big pharma).

But instead they will be busy fighting with Republicans over nonsense.

And Republicans are too fuckin dumb to realize that their moronic plan with SS, to make it a FORCED PAYOUT TO CORPORATIONS, is the same damn thing. Why? Because it was "their guy" who did it.

I think the repubs have cut funding for important ACA areas, Repub gov refuse to implement medicaid portion, private health insurance, big pharma, hospitals, & med suppliers are raising prices to make up for the coming changes, and other problems will force more change, & that change must be adding public option, and negotiating drug/supply costs.

but that will require the people get in the street and demand these changes.

Oh I know. They will eventually cave, and we will see states start to successfully implement cheaper public options and the momentum will grow to finally put the price gauging private health insurance industry out of business.